Aintree's modified Grand National course gets a clean bill of health after two dress rehearsals

Aintree’s painstaking efforts to prevent another public relations nightmare
clearly appear to have paid off, if Saturday’s action-packed card is seen as
a reliable guide.

Fall guys: Shalimar Fromento (No 12) crumples on landing at Becher's Brook shortly to be joined by AbbeybraneyPhoto: PA

By HOTSPUR (J A McGrath)

7:24PM GMT 04 Dec 2011

From 28 runners in two races over the formidable Grand National fences, there were 13 finishers, but more importantly, no fatalities, which is a significantly positive set of statistics with the big race only four months away.

It was another very good day for British racing. In fact, after Kauto Star’s amazing comeback triumph at Haydock, followed by the fairytale win of Carruthers in Newbury’s Hennessy, and then the dual features of West End Rocker hacking up in the Becher Chase and Sizing Europe proving a colossus in the Tingle Creek at Sandown Park, three consecutive peaks have already been reached halfway through a season that promises to be among the best of the modern jumping era.

You suspect there were a few disappointed figures in the anti-racing camp when Aintree ‘failed’ to produce disturbing scenes to replicate those of last April when television cameras captured images of dead horses under tarpaulin covers, as well as breaches of the whip rules that brought suspensions following the finish of the highest-profile race of the year.

That, incidentally, is not a cynical view, it is fact. So often, racing is taken as an easy target by critics, who have no respect for a game that is an important part of the sporting fabric of this country.

Full marks to the Aintree executive for sensibly addressing the issue and introducing modifications to the fences, though Ruby Walsh is right in his view that clipping a few inches off the top of the jumps will only encourage horse and rider to go faster, which in the context of safety, cannot be a good thing. The landing side of Becher’s was raised four or five inches, yet the famous fence still claimed Shalimar Fromento and Abbeybraney in copycat falls.

Racing must continue to work hard at trying to make the focus at Aintree more about the challenge and unique character of the course, and what horse and rider have achieved. Even Aidan Coleman, who picked up a seven-day ban and forfeited more than £2,500 in winning percentages for hitting Stewarts House, his Grand Sefton Chase winner, three times more than permitted, was not going to let the stiff penalties spoil his enjoyment in having ‘cracked’ the National course.

“They can take the money, and they can ban me, but they can’t take away the fact that I have been successful over those big fences,” Coleman said on Sunday. Until Saturday, the National course had been a curse to Coleman, who had suffered seven falls in his previous 10 rides over the big jumps there. He had also shunned 100-1 winner Mon Mome in favour of stablemate Stan in the 2009 Grand National. Hence his delight, though regrets were to follow.

“I genuinely miscounted,” he explained. As they raced to the Elbow, his mount Stewarts House was being pursued by the Paul Carberry-ridden Linnel, who had survived a serious blunder at the last. “I genuinely wasn’t sure [on the count], and I was at pains not to pick it [the whip] up.

"It’s a long run-in, and my horse was hanging left after the last. We were 20 yards farther left than ideal. I was on a tired horse, who had given his all,” he added.

Both at Aintree in the staying races, and Sandown up the hill, the effectiveness of the whip in maintaining momentum in a finish was underlined. Big, long-striding chasers on testing ground need some driving, and there is a fine balance to be struck between what is acceptable on the Flat in contrast to National Hunt. As a persuasive tool, being permitted only one hit more at the end of a marathon than a Flat jockey can apply to a five-furlong sprinter seems disproportionate.

The hard-working Coleman is a fine example of the calibre of jump jockey now occupying the ranks. Talented, hard-working and dedicated, he spoke of the thrill of the experience at Aintree. “My bank balance won’t look too good, especially as I also would have had good rides on Boxing Day. But, looking back [on the win over the National fences], Saturday was the best day of my racing life,” he said.